UK ISP BT Increases Prepaid Consumer Phone Line Rental Saver Price

Customers of BT’s consumer services, particularly those who like to save money on their phone service by pre-paying for a year in advance, should note that the operators Line Rental Saver discount has gone up in price by +7.99% to reflect a policy of the service being 10% cheaper than the standard line rental charge of £16.99 per month.

Until recently customers who took Line Rental Saver paid £169.90 per year (equivalent of £14.16 a month), but BT quietly increased this “early payment discount” last week (9th May) to £183.48 per year (equivalent of £15.29 a month).

A BT Support Agent said:

“Line Rental Saver will offer a 10 per cent discount to customers from May 9. Customers who take Line Rental Saver can save £20.40 a year against BT standard line rental.

Line Rental Saver has proved popular with BT customers and existing customers are not affected by this change until their current deal expires. The new deal still offers a discount for customers paying upfront.

Sky has dropped its cheaper line rental deal altogether – meaning all new Sky customers must pay £16.40 a month – but BT was determined to retain the discounted Line Rental Saver option, which is more than £1 a month cheaper than Sky’s line rental.”

Meanwhile those paying full whack for Standard Line Rental won’t be left out for too much longer because BT usually announces a new range of price hikes around the end of summer, which the rest of the market then predictably follows.

Related increases are usually well above the normal level of inflation and the real cost of wholesale line rental, which has held fairly steady at around the £10 per month mark for several years. We suppose the rising broadband demands / costs have to be balanced somewhere.